This blog Haiti Solutions supports the growth of political and economic freedom, good governance and human rights in Haiti by educating Haitian citizens, parties and governments on the values and practices of democracy.

It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light

Mwen se echantiyon yon ras kap boujonnen men ki poko donnen

Si vous voulez vous faire des ennemis essayer de changer les choses

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

The August 24 Florida primary was an historic opportunity for Haitian-Americans to enter national level politics in the United States.Representative Kendrick Meeks (D) vacated his Congressional seat in District 17, home to the biggest concentration of Haitian-Americans in the country, to run for the Senate.Four Haitian-American candidates emerged as candidates for the District 17 Democratic primary.While their enthusiasm was admirable, several analysts (myself included) warned that if four candidates stood for elections, they would split the Haitian vote, and undermine the chances of a Haitian-American victory.There were calls for them to come together for the greater good, and coalesce around one candidate with the most support in the Haitian-American community and the best chance to win.We noted that our countrymen in Haiti needed the Diaspora support more than ever.Unfortunately, the candidates were unmoved by these calls, and insisted on proceeding with their campaign.As predicted, Haitian-American candidates cumulatively won the race, but split the vote and squandered this rare opportunity.

The division of the Haitian-American vote resulted in the election of a popular African-American candidate, Fredrica Wilson (68).Frederica won 34.5% of the vote and is expected to win the November election in this strongly Democratic district.Haitian-American Rudy Moise came in second place with 16.12%, and the three other Haitian-American candidates received 10.21%, 8.45% and 5.99% respectively.In other words, Haitian-American candidates earned 40.77% of the vote -- enough for a comfortable win.If there were only one Haitian-American candidate, it is likely s/he would have won by an even larger percentage as we could have consolidated resources and mounted an even strong campaign.

Prior to the election, on my blog www.solutionshaiti.blogspot.com, I conducted four informal polls asking which of the four candidates had the best chance to win.To be sure, my polls were unscientific; however, they very accurately that Rudy Moise would get the most amount of support in the primary among the four candidates.

Unfortunately the dream of having national level representation is now over.Haitian-Americans only make up a majority of the vote in very few communities and nowhere more prominently than in District 17.It is incredibly difficult to challenge an incumbent as we also saw last night as the establishment candidates throughout the country beat their challengers even in this atmosphere of “anti-incumbency”.

On the state level, the results were mixed.Unfortunately Alix Desulme lost in District 108 by a mere 356 votes.Better turnout would have certainly edged him to victory.In District 104, John Patrick Julien won with 39.96% -- congratulations to him!

So what are the lessons learned from this experience?If we can get behind one Haitian-American candidate, we have a good chance of winning – and winning handily in areas that are Haitian-American.We also need to turnout to support Haitian-American candidates.They often lose by very small margins, as we saw in District 108, while thousands of Haitian-Americans fail to turnout to vote.Additionally, if we had a truly unified coalition of Haitian Diaspora in the US, this group could be a powerhouse for endorsements and fundraising for Haitian-American candidates.And finally, we have relearned the lesson of our founding fathers:“In Unity There is Strength”!

On a separate note, the Florida elections remind us about what elections should be:free and fair.Unfortunately, our country is now heading into the election season without any hope of free and fair elections.The huge toll on the electoral infrastructure from the earthquake and the totally partisan composition of the CEP (Provisional Electoral Council) have opened an avenue for President Preval to put in place an electoral coup (for additional information see: http://solutionshaiti.blogspot.com/2010/08/will-us-act-to-promote-free-and-fair.html ).The Haitian Diaspora can play a huge role in promoting democratic elections by joining with their countrymen in demanding a non-partisan and upstanding CEP to oversee these critical elections.We can also work together to encourage the United States to hold funding for the elections unless certain changes are made in country, including a reshuffling of the CEP.These measures would go a long way to promoting democracy and transparency in our country.

For years, Marguerite Laurent (alias Zili Danto) a Haitian-American has been an ardent defender and a defacto spokesperson for former Haitian dictator Jean-Bertrand Aristide.What always struck me as being strange was that she injected a heavy dose of racism into her defense of Aristide when the Haitian people were focused on the political violence and vast corruption that led to his downfall.Shedding light on her race baiting, a YouTube video recently surfaced in which African-American leader Louis Farrakhan discusses Haiti’s history and gives advice to presidential candidate and hip hop star, Wyclef Jean.In the speech, Farrakhan briefly mentions Zili (see “Minister Farrakhan's Prophetic Warning to Wyclef Jean on Leading Hait” at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ky3yraY1QM; Farrakhan’s mention of Zili is at 5 mins 38 seconds).

Is Zili using her access to Farrakhan’s church to promote her race-based interpretations of Haiti’s history? Race baiters have always tried to leverage the fact that Haiti is the world’s first black republic to their personal or ideological advantage.That was the case of Randal Robinson and his wife Hazel Robinson who became rich on the back of the Haitians thanks to Aristide’s corrupt business dealings and spreading around state funds to his corrupt allies (for more details click here: http://www.haitipolicy.org/Lobbying7.htm).And now they have injected race into Haiti’s recovery and presidential elections by using Farrakhan. Because he was poorly advised by Zili, Farrakhan’s speech is full of historical distortion, factual errors and contradictions.

To be sure, Haiti is 99% black and proud to be the world's first black republic. However, Haiti’s independence was not just about race. Haiti's founding fathers saw beyond race to the universal values of freedom and equality. Haitians fought alongside Simon Bolivar in his quest to liberate the Latin American countries. They fought alongside the Americans in the Revolutionary War against the British.It was not about Latinos or Americans. For Haitians, it was about freedom and liberation. It is true, however, that the ruling powers of that time may have considered us a threat because of our cause and because of our race, but that did not have an impact on our purpose. Our founding fathers, including Toussaint Louverture and Jacques Dessalines, were visionaries and truly unique, brave men who selflessly put their lives on the line for freedom.They should be an inspiration to us all as we rebuild our country.

Distorting and essentially rewriting Haiti’s history undermines our forefathers and their great history.Haiti’s history should be sacred, but the collective memory of the Haitian independence movement could be tainted by these assertions, and that’s a travesty.

What is also interesting about Zili’s link to Farrakhan and the supportive tenor for Wyclef in his speech.It is surprising that she would be involved with a speech that was essentially “blessing” Wyclef’s candidacy.Wyclef very publicly sided against Aristide in 2004.He supported the violent rebellion led by Guy Phillippe and called for Aristide’s resignation (for Wyclef’s statement see: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1485326/20040225/jean_wyclef.jhtml?headlines=true).Further, proudly sitting behind Wyclef is Ron Daniel, also a once fervent Aristide supporter, who has pursued every avenue possible to make money in Haiti.How do these Aristide defenders explain their support for someone who condemned Aristide?

It seems some of the more prominent Aristidiennes have chosen a new master:Farrakhan.Their impassioned defense of Aristide has fallen by the wayside; opportunism or access to money and power has trumped principle exposing them for what they are:Haiti exploiters.The fact is Aristidiennes see opportunity associated with Wyclef-- and that far outweighs their “commitment” to Aristide.

And finally, in another historical blunder, Farrakhan goes on to say that Aristide was the first democratically elected president of Haiti.This is just not true.Article 106 of the Constitution of 1806 inaugurated the first elections in Haiti. The first election was held in 1810.Over the past 200 years, we have had many democratic elections and 36 elected legislatures.Unfortunately, we have not had continuous democracy over the past 200 years, however.The elections of 1990 that swept Aristide into power were the first democratic elections of the modern era, but again, let us not ignore the achievements of our founders by saying that these were the first democratic elections.

Race baiters and opportunists have always tried to exploit Haiti. At this fragile time in our history, we need to expose these people for what they are and make a clean break from their manipulation.Opportunists such as Zili Danto reduce our proud history to racism for personal gain.She alone should have to live with her personal contradictions and lack of principle – she shouldn’t inflict insult on a proud country with a proud history.

13 fire fighters from Haiti led by Chief Ardouin Zephirin arrived in Rockville for two weeks of fire and rescue training at Montgomery County Fire Rescue Training Academy http://www.rockvilleliving.com/blog/entries/2009_05_firefighters_from_haiti

Stanley Lucas and Richard R. Bowers, Jr, Chief of the Montgomery County (MD) Fire and Rescue Service (MCFRS